CFB16 - W3 Rewind, W4 Preview - Louisville is really good, and we're not talking basketball

Is it possible to lead with anything other than the utter dominance that Louisville showed over Free Shoes U (FSU) to open our Saturday slate of games?  The answer is, no.

Words can not fully describe what happened on Saturday at Papa John's Stadium.  In a blink of an eye, a Lamar Jackson led Louisville team hung 63 points on #2 FSU.  At one point, Louisville scored 7, yes SEVEN, touchdowns in a row.  But the keyword here is team.  Although Lamar Jackson was good, I mean really good (now the odds-on Heisman favorite), this was a complete team win.  The Louisville defense held the former Heisman favorite Dalvin Cook to 54 yards rushing and the FSU offense to just 2-13 on 3rd downs.  Winning 63-20, it was most certainly the most surprising result of the weekend.

W3 Rewind:

Center stage + (pos):  Lamar Jackson and the whole Louisville team, Ohio State, North Dakota State
Center stage - (neg): Notre Dame, FSU, Ole Miss, Derek Mason

Even without Louisville's sensational Saturday start, there were still plenty of headlines throughout the day:

• Ohio State just looked plain ole faster than Oklahoma, winning 45-24, and demonstrating this ridiculous athleticism:

• Is Michigan State good, or is Notre Dame defense, one of only two FBS teams yet to record a sack, just really bad?  MSU wins 36-28 in a score that was closer than the product on the field.
• Ole Miss somehow choked another 2nd half away, blowing a second 21 point first half lead, losing to Alabama 48-43
• Miami looked impressive against a slower and smaller App St, winning 45-10.  Shall I remind you that this is the same App St team that almost beat Tennessee in overtime?
• Don't schedule North Dakota State.  Just don't do it.  5 time FCS champion North Dakota State beat #13 Iowa 23-21, bringing their streak to 6-0 consecutive wins over FBS teams.
• Houston struggled early with an injured Greg Ward, but dominated in the 4th quarter, beating Cincinnati 40-16.
• Stanford looked like they were holding back, as they easily handled USC, winning 27-10.
• Wisconsin narrowly escaped losing to Georgia State, 23-17
• Did former defensive coordinator Charlie Strong forget how to coach defense?  Texas defense gave up half a hundo, losing to California 50-43.
• Georgia needed late game heroics from Eason to beat Mizzou 28-27, while leaving a mark on Mizzou's Jonathon Johnson after this hit:

• Have you ever seen a kick off from the 20 yard line?  The receiving team's 20 yard line. Me neither:
• http://www.si.com/college-football/2016/09/17/eastern-michigan-kickoff-charlotte-20-yard-line
• Lastly, Texas Tech brought you this crazy touchdown:
• https://twitter.com/TexasTechFB/status/777301769969766401/video/1

Game of the weekend:  Goes without saying, FSU at Lousiville.

W4 Preview:

This week starts off on Thursday but ends with a pretty light slate Saturday night (all times central):

• Thurs, 6:30 pm
• Clemson travels to Bobby Dodd Stadium to play the Yellow Jackets where Georgia Tech is 1-5 in Thurs night games.
• Friday, 8:00 pm
• USC plays at Utah, can USC turn it around?
• Saturday, 11:00 am
• #12 Georgia visits The Grove as a 7 pt underdog to play #23 Ole Miss
• Wisconsin at Mich St, I'm going to go out on a limb and say Michigan State is better than Georgia State.
• 2:30 pm
• Florida at Tennessee, both teams are riddled with injuries from Week 3, but this one is sure to be fierce.
• 5:00 pm
• LSU at Auburn, I'll bet you that the Tigers win.
• 7:00 pm
• Stanford at UCLA, UCLA's offense is better than USC, but is that enough?
• 8:00 pm
• Arkansas at TAMU, Arkansas offensive line vs. TAMU defensive line is one of the best unit match-ups of the weekend, if you like that sort of thing.
• 9:30 pm
• Washington at Arizona, Washington finally plays a real team.

If I were a betting man:

• Mich St -5.5, Penn St. +19, LSU -3.5, Neb -7

Your Domestic Duty Deadline (DDD) this week:  This week is a bit abnormal, with most of the good games early in the day.  Flip your schedule around, watch the early games, and you should be free by 5:30 pm to take that special someone out on the town.  This may be your only Saturday of the season that you'll have your evening mostly free, so make good use of it and earn some brownie points.

Vandy Update:
I don't even know where to start.  It isn't so much that we lost to Georgia Tech, it's HOW we lost to Georgia Tech.  Up until this point, Vandy fans had given D Mason somewhat of a pass.  Should we have won against South Carolina?  Sure.  But we did hold the Gamecocks to 13 points, so maybe our defense is really good like everyone thought.  Or, maybe not.

Let me put this in perspective. Mercer University located in Macon, Georgia a) scored more points against Georgia Tech last week, and b) held Georgia Tech to fewer points than Vanderbilt.

Vandy travels 60 miles north to Bowling Green, KY to play Western Kentucky where the Commodores are a 7.5 pt underdog.

Florida Update:
Florida looked dominate against North Texas last week, but didn't walk away unscathed.  The Gator's starting QB Luke Del Rio was injured in the 3rd quarter and is out for at least this week's Tennessee game.

This week, Florida travels to Neyland Stadium in the first major SEC East match-up.  The Volunteers are a 6.5 point favorite in what's sure to be a heated game.

“Hey, the offensive linemen are the biggest guys on the field, they're bigger than everybody else, and that's what makes them the biggest guys on the field.”

DWhit